Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Mar 30, 2023 21 tweets 11 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an English comedian, actor and conspiracy theorist, Russell Brand (@rustyrockets). He's best-known for his tendency to spread conspiracy theories and for his anti-establishment (well, basically their just anti-US/UK policy) views.

1/18
Now, when I say that Brand is a conspiracy theorist, I mean it. It seems that he believes pretty much EVERY conspiracy theory out there, including The Great Reset and "Klaus Schwab taking over the world through WEF", "microchips in vaccines", "Multipolar World",...

2/18
US and CIA-led coup d'etat in Ukraine, and NATO's expansion and proxy war against Russia. Brand's a fan of David Icke, whose worldview contains inter-dimensional, shapeshifting reptilians which have hijacked the earth.

3/18
Icke suggests that various public figures belong to the Babylonian Brotherhood, a fascist group that tries to establish New World Order by suppressing freedom of speech. He also endorses a fabricated, anti-Semitic scripture called " The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
4/18
When discussing the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Brand clearly has picked a side - based on Russell, the only culprits of the war are the US and the "military industrial complex". And most probably Klaus Schwab and his evil association known as the World Economic Forum...

5/18
The basic argument is that everything is infiltrated & everyone is controlled by the "deep state",thus making any kind of democratic efforts pointless. I mean,one of the title of his videos is "Prince Harry Saga – The TRUTH About The Deep State?" (with Clare Daly by the way) 6/18
As too many actors and actresses on social media, Brand has a huge following: he has over 6 million subscribers of YouTube and over 1 million over on Rumble. On Twitter, he has a whopping 11 million followers, even though it's mainly used for channeling people...

7/18
...to his YT and Rumble podcasts. This makes him one of the biggest outlets for conspiratorial content, and he's only surpassed by maybe Elon Musk, Joe Rogan and Donald Trump. After YouTube took down one of Brand's COVID-19 themed videos in...

8/18
..Sep, 2022, he moved to less-censored Rumble. Worried about losing that sweet, sweet YouTube money, Brand even produced an apology video but eventually took it down and said that "we made an error, in my opinion a relatively small error, and we are being ...

9/18
...penalised,and for me that looks like censorship". As an anti-capitalist, Russell evidently seems to worry about losing his main source of income, probably coming from Samsung and Coca Cola ads. You can also buy his T-shirts with cool anti-establishment statements for as..10/18
..low as 25,99 £. I mean, the man even monetized the famous 12 steps from AA/NA with his 2017 book, Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions.

Watching Russell's podcasts is extremely exhausting, they are an endless stream of rambling about conspiracy theories and how the...

11/18
...mainstream media is quiet about them. But I did it, so you don't have to.

On his show, he's interviewed pro-Kremlin propagandists such as RT-funded Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Maté, Jimmy Dore and Seymour Hersh.

12/18
As is tradition, they barely mention Russia, mostly talking about the corruption both in the US and in Ukraine. In Mar 2022, Brand published a video titled "You've Been LIED To About Why Ukraine War Began". The video to date has garnered 3,1 million views, and in it Brand.. 13/18
...suggests, right after he's advertised his stand-up gigs, that the Revolution of Dignity was actually a US-backed coup d'etat. He bases this information on heavily biased op-ed by Branko Marcetic. In said op-ed, Marcetic suggested that the "coup" was funded by the US...

14/18
...because John McCain shook hands with Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok and Victoria Nuland gave out sandwiches to both the protestors and the police, and said "Fuck the EU" during a phone call.

Brand also appeared as a commentator on a fellow anti-capitalist Tucker ...
15/18
...Carlson's show, apparently because he believes "change is possible". The Tucker Carlson, who was so worried about the stock price going down that he had a dissenting co-worker fired. Brand was "surprised" on how many things they "actually agreed on", and for some...

16/18
... reason this whole rant reminded me of a horseshoe.

To conclude, Brand is utilizing his career as a comedian and actor to spread wild conspiracy theories in his podcast with clickbait titles like "Why Zelensky REALLY Wants US Tanks". If there's something he's learned..
17/18
..from the American media culture,it's that fear sells: his rants about the end of days and deep state corruption are often seasoned with ads where he sells his stand-up gig or his mugs and T-shirts with corny slogans. You know, grifting and fearmongering for a hefty profit.18/18
CORRECTION 1/18

Their = they're

Goddamnit.
Also, do read George Monbiot's (@GeorgeMonbiot) fantastic and thorough analysis on Brand:

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Apr 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a bank that is well-known in both Austria and Russia: Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and its Russian subsidiary, AO Raiffeisen. It is one of the few foreign banks that still does business in Russia.

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Raiffeisen’s Russian branch was founded in 1996 and expanded dramatically after the acquisition of Russia’s Impexbank in 2006. A year later, it was the largest bank trading in foreign capital (seventh in size) in Russia.

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In the early 2000s, Raiffeisen opened new branches in Russia, including in Saint Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar. After 2018, it focused on digital expansion and by 2021 it had a digital presence in more than 300 cities.

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Apr 24
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an Estonian lawyer, social activist, politician, and useful idiot for the Kremlin, Varro Vooglaid (@varrovooglaid). He’s best-known for promoting pro-Kremlin viewpoints under the guise of “traditional family values.”

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Vooglaid has an academic background, which usually gives people plenty of credibility in the eyes of the Kremlin. Most of his academic career was spent at the University of Tartu, but he was also a researcher between 2007 and 2011 at the University of Helsinki.

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Varro is likely the most influential vatnik in Estonia. His academic credentials provide him credibility, while his religious image appeals to “traditionalists” - many of whom oddly admire Russia and its imperialistic nature.

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Apr 4
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a Russian ultra-nationalist propagandist and “philosopher”, Aleksandr Dugin. He’s best-known for his blueprint on Russia’s geopolitical strategy and for his genocidal rhetoric towards Ukrainians.

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In my first Dugin Soup, I covered the man’s 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics — a manual for dismantling the West, breaking up NATO, and building a Russian-led empire. In it, he makes eerie “predictions” that seem to be playing out today.

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Dugin called for destabilizing the US by exacerbating internal divisions. Fast forward to today: culture wars, conspiracy theories, far-right lunatics, and social media algorithms doing half the work for him.

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Apr 3
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Apr 1
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russian propagandist Sergei Tsaulin. He’s best-known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Estonia, fleeing to Russia after breaking several laws in Estonia, and almost getting blown up by a bomb in St. Petersburg.

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For years, Tsaulin was known for organizing marches and events glorifying the Soviet Union. Under the excuse of “remembering history,” these events were nothing more than Kremlin propaganda, wrapped in a red flag with a hammer and sickle.

2/17 Image
One of his most infamous events was the “Immortal Regiment” march, held every 9th of May, where people carried portraits of Soviet soldiers. These marches are used by Russia to push the idea that the Baltics owe their existence to the Soviets.

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Mar 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a podcaster and conspiracy theorist, Joe Rogan (@joerogan). He’s best-known for launching the biggest podcast in the world, promoting various conspiracy theories, his support for Donald Trump and his anti-Ukraine rhetoric.

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Joe Rogan started as a stand-up comedian in the 1980s, found fame on NewsRadio, and became a household name with Fear Factor. But his biggest impact came in 2009 when he launched The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), one of the first major podcasts.

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JRE started as casual but deep conversations, often covering countercultural topics like psychedelics, MMA & hunting. Joe’s podcasting style is largely non-confrontational, often allowing his guests to share their views without significant pushback or critical questioning.

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Read 23 tweets

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